Tenuis consonant

Tenuis
◌˭
Encoding
Entity (decimal)˭
Unicode (hex)U+02ED

In linguistics, a tenuis consonant (/ˈtɛn.jɪs/ or /ˈtɛnɪs/)[2] is an obstruent that is voiceless, unaspirated and unglottalized.

In other words, it has the "plain" phonation of [p, t, ts, tʃ, k] with a voice onset time close to zero (a zero-VOT consonant), as Spanish p, t, ch, k or English p, t, k after s (spy, sty, sky).

For most languages, the distinction is relevant only for stops and affricates. However, a few languages have analogous series for fricatives. Mazahua, for example, has ejective, aspirated, and voiced fricatives /sʼ z/ alongside tenuis /s/, parallel to stops d/ alongside tenuis /t/.

Many click languages have tenuis click consonants alongside voiced, aspirated, and glottalized series.

  1. ^ "tenuis". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  2. ^ The latter to better distinguish from 'tenuous'. Plural: tenues, /ˈtɛn.jz/ or /ˈtɛnz/.[1]

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